Spacewalk
by phoenixfire53
Summary: A lot of things can happen in thirteen years. I happen to be one of them.
1. Fates Entwined on a Tabletop

**Author's Note: **WAZZUP PEOPLE!!!! I've ultimately decided to write another B.S.G. fanfic – and if you're wondering if this one involves a kid, then – to answer your question – IT DOES!!!! I find that sticking a kid in a Lee/Kara story makes things oh so more interesting. Up the antics and the chaos! LOVE IT!! :D

**Title: **Spacewalk

**Summary: **A lot of things can happen over thirteen years. I'm one of those 'things'.

**Rating: **Well…for the first time in my fanfiction writing career, I'm actually attempting an M-rated story. Yup, you heard me – an M-rated story, people. Brace yourselves. It's gonna be one hell of a rollercoaster ride.

**Pairing:** Lee/Kara. DUH.

**Story Perspective (don't have a clue as to why I'm including this, but oh well. Like I honestly give a damn): **I thought it would be fun to tell it in a first-person perspective. Don't expect me to tell you whose perspective it's from – you've gotta read to solve that mystery.

**PHEW! Thank the gods that's over! (Yes, I say gods and frak now, so get used to it) Anyway, I've got this genius and deviously amazing story written, so read it and enjoy! HAVE A BLAST, PEOPLE!!! :)**

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There were only two things Lee Adama and Kara Thrace shared in common on the night that they'd first met in Kara's apartment – they were exceptionally talented viper pilots and battlestar soldiers; and they were drunk as hell and out of their godsdamned minds when they sprawled out on Kara's dining table and did the dirty deed. Other than those two factors, those two were opposites in every single way you could imagine – their ages, the amount of common sense in them, their ideas – EVERYTHING. Still, those two formers and fate itself brought Lee and Kara close together, and out of that one-night stand, something wonderful was created.

Kara Thrace had been dating Lee's younger brother Zak for three straight weeks before that one eventful evening, and up until then, those three weeks of condom-shielded frakking and nights of stupefying boozing had been one hell of a party for her. She was a certified party animal, a soldier with language more colorful than a marine's inherited vocabulary, and a prodigious goddess of a pilot – and she'd earned all these reputations at a mere nineteen years old, a couple days after her restriction from drinking herself into a tipsy mess had evaporated.

Lee Adama was abso-frakking-lutely POLAR compared to Zak and Kara. At twenty-one years old, he was the type of person that almost always followed the rules to the letter, no matter how stupid or cruel they were. Lee was also – on most occasions – the type of guy that said no to anything that sounded even remotely stupid, and he usually stuck to his common sense or the smart feeling in his gut when faced with a tricky situation. There were times though, when the common sense and gut feeling tanked.

Lee had NO idea what he was getting into when he knocked on Kara's door. The only thing that had been running through his head at the time was, _I'm just having dinner with Zak and his girlfriend. No big deal. _That thought went _POOF_ as soon as he looked into Kara's deep brown-hazel eyes.

"You must be Lee," she'd said in a casual, yet enticing voice. "I'm Kara."

Lee nodded sheepishly…it was really the only thing he was capable of doing, other than saying something back. "Yeah, I'm the older brother." Remembering the bouquet of flowers he was clutching in his hands, he held them out for Kara to take. "Hope you like them."

"You didn't have to do that." Nonetheless, Kara took the flowers in her arms, and carried them to the kitchen, cradling the bouquet like a baby wrapped in a blanket. "Come on in, make yourself at home."

Having nothing better to do, Lee obeyed, and slowly walked into the apartment. For some odd reason, Lee felt like he was taking a huge risk by going into Kara's place. It was like going inside was pretty much asking for trouble to waltz on in. Well, Lee would see why later.

"Nice place you got here," Lee said in a sad attempt to get a conversation going.

"Nah, this place is a rattrap."

"No, really, it's nice."

Thankfully, Zak burst into the kitchen before either one could O.D. on awkwardness. "He's lying, babe. Hope you know that."

"I knew your older bro was lying before you even told me," Kara giggled as Zak pecked her on the cheek sweetly. "He should play me in cards sometime."

Lee chuckled nervously, painfully unsure of what to do at the moment without looking like a dumbass in Kara's apartment. "Anything I can do to help?" he finally managed to say.

"First off, you could give me a hug." Zak spread his arms out like an eagle unfurling it's wings. "C'mon Lee, gimme some love."

"Yeah, you'll get your lovin' there, big guy," Lee joked as he embraced Zak in a bear hug. "I'm not that evil."

"Pssh, you couldn't be evil if you tried hard enough. You're too soft."

Lee smacked Zak on the back of his head. "Softer than cream cheese, frakkin' ladies' man."

Kara could only stare at the two brothers as they verbally duked it out; while it was weird as hell, at the same time it was also funny as hell. These guys were acting like four-year olds.

"All right guys, cut it out!" she laughed. "You can bitch at each other later. Right now, sit your asses down, 'cause dinner's ready."

Almost instantly, Lee was back to being as tense and as stiff as a wood plank; he'd finally unwound himself by squabbling with Zak, but now he was back to being wound up like a godsdamned spring, thanks to Kara. He wondered if things could possibly get worse.

Boy was Lee in for one frakking HELL of a surprise.

Three hours later, Lee and Kara were half-dragging/half-carrying an overly drunk Zak over to Kara's sofa to let him sleep off the alcohol floating around in his head, the both of them giggling like schoolgirls as Zak mumbled things like, "You guys 're great'…lo' you so much," and snored as loudly and as intensely as a buzz saw.

"He's gonna be in for one nasty hangover tomorrow," Kara tittered as she flung Zak's legs on to the couch.

"More than that…all right big guy, up ya go." Lee grabbed his baby brother's shoulders, and then hoisted the rest of him on to the cushions. When he was sure that Zak wasn't going to fall off and whack his head on the floor or something close to that, Lee sat down on one of the dining chairs, and stared at Kara.

"So, what do you wanna do?"

A grin that could've stretched from Caprica to Tauron bloomed on Kara's face. "Weeellll…I was hoping to save this for the three of us, but oh well. You up for shots?" Kara asked as she pulled out a bottle of whiskey and two shot glasses.

At the time, Lee's gut was pleading for him to turn away the shots and just leave before things could get nasty. Unfortunately, a couple bottles of beer had screwed up Lee's better judgment, so he foolishly accepted the shots offer. He took the glass that Kara had held out to him, and grinned lazily as she filled it up to the lip with the amber-colored liquor.

"Gods, I'm gonna be as bad as Zak next day if I keep going," Lee groaned as his head began to buzz from the alcohol.

Kara giggled. "You're a pilot, tough it out." She downed her shot in a matter of seconds, then reached for the bottle of whiskey and refilled her glass, slightly overdoing the amount by pouring the brown liquid past the lip.

"Might as well make the best of it," Lee shrugged before throwing his head back and letting his whiskey dribble down his throat. It left a tingling feeling in the back of his mouth, and it caused his head to buzz more. He ignored it though, as he pushed his glass towards Kara and asked her to refill it.

Like she did with hers, Kara overfilled Lee's glass. She watched as the liquor ran down the side and on to the table with curiosity, then burst out laughing. "Oops."

Oddly enough, Lee started to laugh too. He knew that all the booze was what was causing him to laugh at something so plain and simple, but he didn't care. He was teetering on the thin line between not-drunk and drunk.

"Could my night possibly get any worse?" Lee howled.

In about two point-five seconds, it did.

Kara stopped laughing at the shot glass, then turned to Lee with a seductive – and drunk – grin on her face. "You know what, Apollo? I dare you." Her eyes began to sparkle mischievously. "I _double-dog _dare you."

Lee instantly knew what she was getting at; he'd heard this so many times before that by now he'd lost count of it. If his head hadn't been blasted to hell with alcohol, Lee would've done the smart thing and high-tailed it out of Kara's apartment. But, since it was blasted with alcohol, his head was telling him to let go of his common sense and get a couple minutes of feel-good action.

"You double-dog dare me?" He shook his head in disbelief, but got out of his chair and stood over Kara with a half-smile on his face. "All right."

For a split second, Kara couldn't believe that Lee was actually going to do it; she'd been certain that he'd say no and run like hell from her. Now here he was, agreeing to frak her on her dining table.

She stifled a drunken giggle, and hoisted herself on to the table. Then, she slowly began to scoot backwards as Lee started to crawl towards her.

_Holy hell, _Kara thought. _We're really gonna do it. _

She propped herself up to kiss Lee. Just as she was about to press her lips to his, her hand knocked her shot glass off the table, and it exploded into a million pieces on the hardwood floor.

Both immediately froze where they were, and held their breath, hoping that the shattering hadn't woken up Zak. Zak may have been drunk as hell, but that didn't mean he couldn't lapse out of sleep at the sound of breaking glass.

Thankfully, he only mumbled, "Oops, somethin's broken." Then, with a loud snore, he turned over on the couch, and fell back to sleep.

Lee let out a sigh of relief. "That was a close one," he mumbled silently. "I don't think we should be doing…"

He was cut off by Kara grabbing the back of his head and crushing her mouth to his. All of a sudden, Lee was incapable of forming a coherent thought or performing a coherent action as she kissed him with all her might. In short, you could pretty much say that Lee belonged to Kara now.

"No frakking way, Lee." With her hand still clutching Lee's head, she pulled away from him, and stared into his deep blue eyes. She found it amazing how clear and bright his eyes were when they were focused on her. "I don't give a shit if I've only known you for a couple hours. I want this, and I want it BAD. Besides, you still have a dare to carry out." She shrugged out of her teal t-shirt and tossed it on the floor, then looked at Lee with a spark of deviousness in her hazel eyes. "Now shut up and gimme what I want, Apollo."

Lee knew that was what he was about to do with the woman lying in front of him was stupid and dangerous, but at this point now, he couldn't give a shit. As he pulled his shirt off and got into a pushup position above Kara, he silently prayed that Zak wouldn't wake up while they were in the middle of the deed. He wouldn't forgive himself for doing that to his brother if he was awake for the show.

"Let's go Apollo. I'm waiting."

In response to Kara's impatience, Lee lowered himself down so his mouth just barely touched hers. "You don't have to wait anymore. You're gonna get what you want," Lee murmered. Then, with that said, he pressed his lips to Kara's, and pinned her beneath his body.

The wooziness from the alcohol suddenly evaporated from Kara's head as the kiss and their bodies came to life. What Lee was doing to her right now felt more electrifying and amazing than what Zak usually rolled out for her; to his credit, Zak could put on a damn good show, but it almost always felt odd and foreign to Kara, like she had to be reacquainted with him every time they did it. With Lee though – this was different. It was like Kara had done this with Lee a million times. It felt good to her – she liked a sense of familiarity.

Kara quickly grew bored with feeling familiar with Lee – she was now antsy to venture into uncharted territory. She ran her tongue along Lee's bottom lip in a move to deepen the kiss, and simultaneously began to undo his pants.

Lee struggled to stifle a groan of pleasure as Kara yanked his pants and boxers down his legs. Normally, it would've taken a LOT to get him turned on, but at the moment, his head was frakking BLASTED with alcohol – hell, anything would've turned Lee on in a split-second, this included. He willingly helped in stripping the rest of his clothes off, then worked on getting Kara's pants off without breaking the kiss they were sharing.

Once both pairs of pants were gone, everything got crazy. In a bout of passion, a now rock-solid Lee jammed himself into Kara, and went at a steady, rhythmic pace. By now, Kara was moaning his name softly, so as not to wake up Zak, and clawing and clutching at Lee's shoulders. Already she could feel the ecstatic euphoria pooling in her groin, and she had to bite down on her cheeks to keep from screaming.

"It feels good, Lee. Oh gods, it feels so frakking good," she rasped, her voice throaty and husky.

It was getting harder to resist the building orgasms in the two; Lee was grunting and chuffing in his lust-filled haze now, and Kara wasn't far from doing the same thing too. Still, they kept rocking on the table.

All of a sudden, Kara stage-whimpered as her sex high overtook her, and Lee gasped sharply as he toppled over the brink of stability. Lee collapsed on top of Kara, panting heavily like he'd finished running a marathon, while Kara gulped in as much air as her lungs would allow her to.

"That wasn't so bad now, was it?" Kara whispered in a fluttery voice.

"It was quick, but it felt good." Lee pulled himself out of Kara, and pulled his pants back up.

Kara sat up, and looked at Lee with a question mark expression on her face. "What are you doing?"

"Getting out of here before Zak wakes up." He snatched his shirt of the floor, and hastily pulled it over his head. "You and I both know that it isn't going to be a pretty scene if he sees us lying on top of each other, or if we're buck-naked."

Reluctantly, Kara tugged her shirt back on, then did the same with her pants. "Yeah, well we also know that all the booze he downed has knocked him out cold until tomorrow, Lee." Once all her clothes were back on, she sat back in one of the dining chairs, and tiredly rested her head on the table, yawning as she did so. Yeah, the frakking was short-lived, but it sapped a hell of a lot of Kara's energy. Right now, she wanted to do nothing more than shut her eyes and sleep off the alcohol and tomorrow's pain-in-the-ass hangover.

Lee scratched the back of his neck nervously. "I should be going now, Kara."

"No...you're about as wasted as I am, and the last thing you need is to drive home while you can't even walk straight," Kara mumbled sleepily. "You can at least crash here for the night until you're pretty sober...I don't care."

"As wasted as you? Please," Lee mumbled under his breath irritably. Compared to Kara, he looked and acted like he hadn't even had one DROP of booze. And crashing _HERE?_ That was just BEGGING for trouble to come on in. There was no frakking way that he was gonna spend the night at Kara Thrace's apartment.

But oddly enough, Lee found himself saying yes. He didn't know what had possessed him to actually accept Kara's offer, but it had been said and done now. She smiled softly at Lee, then slowly drifted off to sleep.

"I love you, Lee," she whispered just before she began to snore softly.

Lee jumped a little at the sound of her words. It made him nervous; Kara shouldn't have been saying stuff like that to him...it would've been fine if she'd said it to Zak, but saying it to Lee was COMPLETELY different. It was almost like she could care less about what Zak thought of her and what she'd been doing minutes ago. Come to think of it now, Lee wondered if she cared about Zak, PERIOD.

The fact that Kara was unknowingly messing with his baby brother scared him, and he couldn't stand the feeling. He needed to get his ass out of here, and he needed to do it NOW. He grabbed his leather jacket off the couch, and silently powerwalked away from Kara, and out of the apartment. As he closed the door and left the building, Lee prayed to the gods that tonight's actions wouldn't lead to something he'd ultimately regret later.

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**SHWEETNESS!!!! CHAPTER NUMBER ONE IS FINISHED!!!!! ENJOY THIS ONE FOR RIGHT NOW, PEOPLE!! CHAPTER TWO COMING SOON!!! AND REMEMBER, REVIEWS ARE POWER!!!!!! :D**


	2. Prepwork

**Author's Note: **Hello there ladies and gents! Chapter number two is officially HERE!! So now, you ready to rock this house?

**Disclaimer: **I own an epic mood ring – it's the kind of ring that you wear on your thumb, F.Y.I. Guess who's being cosplayed? :D

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I was nearly two seconds away from collapsing on the floor in exhaustion. My legs felt like jelly, and my lungs had probably shrunk down to the size of kidney beans. "Mom, can we take a breather for a quick second, PLEASE? My chest hurts like hell," I rasped, struggling to ignore the pain radiating in my chest.

My mom, who looked like she'd only been running for a mile and a half instead of four, shook her head and give me an eat-shit grin. "C'mon Sloane, you're thirteen years old, and you're as healthy as a frakking racehorse. If a girl like you can easily do twenty pullups, then you sure as hell can run six miles around Galactica."

_Twenty pullups...gods, she makes it sound like I can frakking do a hundred of 'em. _

"Mom, let me make this clear to you - NO. Four miles is my limit, not six."

Mom smirked and raised a blonde eyebrow. "You wanna fly vipers, Sloane?"

"Ah, don't do this to me-"

"Do you wanna learn to pilot a viper, or do you wanna be stuck doing repair jobs with Uncle Galen and sitting around in Uncle Helo's raptor for the rest of your life?"

"Hey, I actually like hanging out with them, mom," I contradicted. I did - Uncle Galen and Uncle Helo were pretty fun to hang around. Galen was hangar deck chief of Galactica and a badass, and Uncle Helo was the battlestar's best raptor pilot, and another badass. They were great.

Nonetheless, my mom did have a point, I guess. Viper pilots had to be pretty damn healthy and fit to fly a bird and handle the G's that came with it. You were pretty much screwed in the cockpit if you couldn't take the heat. But how does this apply to me? Well, I wanna be a pilot like you people wouldn't even BELIEVE; in fact, I'm so godsdamned focused on becoming one that mom's decided to throw me a bone and get me going on training in a couple weeks. Hey, I may be thirteen years old, but I learn fast and conquer. Besides, I hear that getting a head start on something at a young age means more wisdom and experience later on in the future.

Back to the original subject, though. Mom said that running and working out and all that other b.s. would help me get ready for the work ahead. Believe me, I get that it's important to be in top physical condition before jumping in a viper, but is it so important that I'm stuck running four to six miles a _day? _

Mom's voice brought me out of the murkiness of my thoughts. She pursed her lips, and calmly asked, "Well Sloane? Do you wanna fly vipers or not?"

I couldn't say no to her, there was no way in hell that I could. She was my mom, for frak's sake.

_Damn her, and damn manipulation._

I sighed. "Yeah, I wanna fly vipers."

"Then keep running."

Reluctantly, I kept my legs moving, ignoring the fact that they were almost screaming in pain and soreness. "You are certifiably INSANE, you know that, mom?"

Mom laughed. "Trust me, you'll thank me later." She turned a corner, and left me struggling to catch up to her. "Just keep running, Sloane. You'll get used to the feeling soon."

She then barged through a cluster of people with a cry of, "Make a hole!" and disappeared around another corner.

_Great. Now she's abandoned me. Joy of joys._

"FRAKKING SADIST!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, even though I knew mom wouldn't hear me. By now, she was too far away to be able to listen to me.

_Evil woman. _

"My gods, I'm gonna smack her when I'm done," I muttered.

"And who would she be?"

I looked over my shoulder, and saw Commander Adama staring at a small piece of paper in his wrinkly hands. He was murmuring the words to himself softly, like he was trying to memorize what had been written down. For a moment, I thought that what he was doing was a little odd; then it occurred to me that today was Galactica's decommissioning ceremony. The old man was memorizing the speech that had been pre-written for him.

_Duh. _

I smiled at the old man. "My mom, who else?"

He chuckled. "What's Starbuck done this time, Sloane?"

I gulped in a big breath of air before speaking. "She gave me a fitness lecture, then ran ahead of me to finish up her mile," I grumbled.

"How many miles have you done already?" he asked.

"Four...but the way my mom says it, you'd think I only ran one."

Adama chuckled again. "That explains why you look like a strawberry. I'll tell you what though, Sloane - why don't I tell your mother that I have a job for you, and we call it quits on the running?" he offered.

I frakking LOVED this guy. "What kind of job did you have in mind there, sir?"

"Well, Chief Tyrol says that he needs another deckhand to help him fix up the vipers before the decommissioning today. Why don't you go down to the hangar and give him a hand?"

"You," I panted, "are the frakking BOMB. Thank you!"

"I don't know how your mother lets you use language like that, but oh well." Adama laughed throatily and shook his head. "Get going now, Sloane. Chief's waiting for you on the hangar deck."

I grinned. "Yes sir," I huffed tiredly as I gave him a casual salute. Then, I jogged - at turtle speed, of course - down to the hangar to help Uncle Galen patch up the vipers.

As I moved through the halls, I sighed to myself blissfully, thinking of the repairs that would be sitting in front of me. One thing you should know about me: next to being just weird as hell and screwing around with certain things - and people, when I was feeling evil - I loved toying around with the birds. Not only was it a good way for me to really get friendly with the things and all their inner clockwork, but it was a shitload of fun to fix 'em up and see what they could do afterwards. Ever send a viper out of a launch tube, then just watch it blow anything in sight to hell? Well, lemme tell ya, it's really frakking COOL. Even cooler than fireworks, if you ask me.

Anyway, I finally reached the hangar deck, and was happy to see six birds with the painfully obvious yellow repair tape. _Just my day, _I thought to myself. _Patchin' up birds with Uncle Galen, and absolutely no crap from mom - well, for the moment anyway. This is frakking perfect. _

"Hey Sloane, what are you doing down here?" Uncle Galen asked as he came over and gave me a big 'ole hug. "Just dropped in to say hi?"

"Actually, no. The old man said you were short one deckhand, so I figured that I'd be a good niece and help you out with the vipers." I pulled on a neon-orange knuckledragger suit, then only zipped it up to the waist and tied the arms around it. Hey, those things could make you pretty godsdamn hot if you wear 'em all the way...wear that monkey suit for a good twenty minutes, and you'll be sweating like a frakking pig.

"Great! I was just about to ask you if you wanted to help me and the other guys out. No need to now, I suppose." Uncle Galen picked up his ever-present toolbox, and made his way over to one of the birds. "Just pick a bird with repair tape around it - you know the drill."

I nodded obediently, then picked out a bird with a screwy DRADIS. As I climbed into the cockpit to get to work on the DRADIS, I noticed two deckhands come on the deck. One of the two - Cally, a chick with straight reddish-brown hair, bangs, and a frak-ton of freckles sprinkled across her face - smiled and waved at me. The other - Prozna, who I thought was the biggest bore on Galactica - grumbled out a "Hello" as he trudged over to another bird with a slightly damaged underbelly.

"Cally!" Uncle Galen called out from across the bay. "How much time 'til the old man's here?"

Cally held up three fingers. "You got the picture?"

Uncle Galen nodded, then pulled out a large, hexagonal-shaped object wrapped in white paper. "Tell everyone to get to their places, 'kay Cally?" He then pointed to me and said, "You too, Sloane. Right now, you'd be considered a deckhand, so follow Cally and the others, and you'll be good to go, alright?"

I flashed Uncle Galen a thumbs-up, then jumped out of the cockpit, and stood beside Cally and Prozna just as the old man came on the deck.

"Attention on deck!" Uncle Galen barked as he saluted Adama.

Adama saluted back, and said, "At ease, Chief."

"This way, sir."

Adama followed Uncle Galen over to the group of deckands, and stood in front of a large figure shrouded in a black sheet.

_Huh, never noticed that before. Gods, I feel blind now. _

Two deckhands went around behind the mystery thing, and yanked the sheet off. As it floated dramatically to the floor, it was hard to keep my mouth from dropping down in awe. The thing in front of me right now, was a viper mark II. It looked like it had just been rolled off the show floor; the paint job was immaculate, the body had absolutely NO dings or scratches on it, and the trusters looked like they hadn't even been used yet. This baby was a frakking BEAUTY.

The old man's eyes grew wide at the sight of it. "A mark II....I haven't seen one of these things in about twenty years."

"If the commander will look at the tail numbering," Uncle Galen said.

Adama chuckled as he looked at the callsign plate. From I was standing, I could see his name, and the callsign HUSKER below it in large brassy letters. His amusement lasted for only a second, then he directed his attention to the tail of the viper.

"Nebula seven-two-four-two constellation."

A nostalgic look appeared on the old man's face. "Oh my gods, where did you find her?" he demanded after a few seconds of staring at the tail number.

Uncle Galen grinned. "Rusting out in a salvage yard in Sagittarion." His grin grew bigger as he looked at the mark II. "We had hope that the commander would allow her to participate in the decommissioning ceremony."

_They found this thing in a SALVAGE YARD? Okay, I definitely wasn't buying that load of bullshit. The thing looked like it was frakking brand new!_

"She'll fly?"

"Oh yes, sir. We've...restored the engine, patched the guidance system, replaced much of the flight controls, and it's armed and ready for launch, sir."

The old man ran a large hand across the body of the viper. "You guys are amazing," he murmured.

Uncle Galen then produced the hexagon-shaped object from behind his back, and handed it to Adama. "Commander."

"What, more?" he chuckled as he gladly took in his hands, and began to tear the paper off. "Somebody's bucking for a promotion around here."

"I believe that would be Prozna, sir. He found this in the fleet archives. He was doing some research for the museum."

Adama stared longingly at the hexagon in his hands - which I found out from Cally, was actually an old picture of him and his two sons, Zak and Lee - and mumbled something under his breath. Then, he looked at everyone present, and said, "Thank you...thank you all. It's an honor."

"You're welcome, sir," Uncle Galen smiled. Then, he dismissed everyone and told us to get back to work.

I jumped back in the viper with the gimpy DRADIS, and proceeded to undo the screws on the screen. "That was pretty sweet," I said absent-mindedly.

"Dontcha know it, Sloane." Cally half-smiled at me as she tightened loose bolts on the wing of a viper. "You have no idea how long it took us to fix that up....it sure as hell was worth it, though."

"Oh yeah...what possessed you guys to do that?"

"Sloane, the old man hasn't seen that bird in twenty years," Prozna replied as he wheeled out from under the bird he'd chosen to work on and gave me a DUH look. "We figured it would be nice to let him see it again before his son took it out for a spin during the decommissioning ceremony today."

_Well, THAT was new - not only did Adama have two kids, but one of them was a pilot, too. _

"Adama's son is a pilot?"

Prozna nodded. "Yup, and a damn good one, too. In fact, Lee Adama is such a good viper pilot that he almost passed your mother up in the best pilot category while they were in flight school."

"He _almost _did, but he didn't actually do it. So, my mom's still keepin' her status as a badass flying goddess." I undid the last screw on the dashboard, and yanked it off to reveal a bunch of multicolored wires and circuitboards. "Gods, who woulda' thought that Adama had kids?"

"Too bad it's only down to one now," Prozna muttered as he returned to repairing the underside of his viper.

_Okay, what the hell?_

"Wait a minute, what the frak happened to Zak?"

"He died two years ago," Uncle Galen sighed. "He crashed his viper into the Caprican Flight Academy's landing deck. Crash, bang, boom, done. It was bad."

_Shit, that must've killed the old man when he found out. _

"Well, that's depressing."

"Even more depressing than not knowing who your own father is?"

I shook my head. "No way. That sucker still ranks up top as number one."

There was nothing in the universe that could come close to being as depressing as my being fatherless. Ever since I was born, I've never known who my own dad is. What his name is, what he does for a job, what his personality's like - NOTHING. Whatever information about him usually came from mom when she got too cozy with a bottle or two of ambrosia. According to her, my dad has blue eyes - they were the kind of blue that could either be so beautiful that they made you wanna cry; or they could be so cold and harsh that you may as well be frozen into a godsdamn ice cube if you stare into them too long. It was all I knew about him.

As I untangled the massive jumble of wires in the cockpit, I said to no one in particular, "Does my dad even know I exist?"

All of a sudden, Uncle Galen shushed me. "Quiet Sloane, we've got chatter."

Obediently, I stopped my babbling, and listened; sure enough, there was comm. chatter going on between a pilot and flight control.

"Viper four-five-zero, this is Galactica. Approach port-side landing bay, hands-on speed one-zero-five. Checker's red, call the ball."

"Galactica, this is viper four-five-zero. Check that, did you say _hands-on approach?_" the pilot said in an unsure voice.

"Viper four-five-zero, that's affirmative."

"Copy that, Galactica. Port landing bay, hands-on approach one-zero-five. I have the ball."

As soon as the pilot said that, everybody on the hangar deck went ballistic with franticness. "LET'S GO, LET'S GO, LET'S GO!" Uncle Galen shouted to the deckhands. "SLOANE, YOU STAY PUT, GOT IT?"

_Well DUH, what else do you want me to do?_

"WILL DO!" I hollered back, then sat back and watched as chaos unfolded on the deck. Knuckledraggers and the occasional pilot or two were running around and squawking like a bunch of chickens. They all rushed to clear a path for the incoming viper and it's pilot, and desperately attempted to not make a total frakking mess while they did so. I shook my head and smirked; it was pretty rare for me to see a pilot board the ship, especially if it was a pilot from another battlestar, so I guess you could call this a bit of entertainment for me.

Anyway, the viper was wheeled on to the deck, and Uncle Galen immediately ordered everybody to stand to the side. "Captain Lee Adama, on deck!" he barked as he gave a stiff salute.

The cockpit of Apollo's - I was able to see his callsign plate from where I was sitting - viper was slid open, and after his helmet and oxygen collar were removed, he stood up and looked at everyone.

This was it - Lee Adama had officially arrived.

-------

**SCORE!! Yet another chappie finished and POSTED!!!!! :D Anyways, R&R!!!!!!! REVIEWS ARE POWER!!!! **


	3. A Possibility and a Primary Gimbal

**Author's Note: **Jeez, I'm on a roll with cranking these chapters out! Anyway, brace yourselves, 'cause you're gonna get rocked like a frakking hurricane, baby!! :D

**Disclaimer: **I own an anime doodle I did of Starbuck. You go get 'em, you badass. xD

-------

It was damn near impossible for me to stop gawking at Apollo as he vaulted out of his viper's cockpit and and walked down the wheely stairs with a cocky _I'm-a-badass_ sort of attitude. I didn't know why, but there was something that was painfully familiar about Lee Adama - almost like I'd known him way before mom and I relocated ourselves to Galactica. It was weird as hell.

Except for the airlock claxons going off, the entire hangar deck was as silent as a frakking mausoleum as the deckhands saluted Apollo. The silence lasted for only a few seconds though; some jughead in a knuckledragger suit said, "Welcome aboard, Apollo!" Then, it went right back to being noisy and busy on the deck.

I waited a few minutes before going back to work on the frakked-up DRADIS system; during those few minutes, I watched Uncle Galen verbally trip over himself as he tried to impress Lee.

"Morning, sir. Chief Tyrol," he introduced himself to Lee. "I'll be your crew chief while you're aboard."

Lee nodded curtly. "Captain Lee Adama."

Uncle Galen stuck his hand out for Lee to shake it. "It's a real pleasure to...meet you, sir." He retracted his hand when Lee didn't bother to shake it. "I'm sure you've heard this before, but I'm a great admirer of your father. Services are gonna miss him when he retires."

"Well, I'm sure someone will," Lee said sourly. "Is your auto-landing system down? I was hands-on for the whole approach."

_Jeesh, who the frak pissed in his coffee? This guy's acting like a real ass right now. _

"It's all hands-on here, Captain. There are no auto-landing systems here. _Commander _Adama's orders."

"Is that right?"

By that time, I'd stopped paying attention to Lee and Uncle Galen's conversation, and returned to working on the DRADIS. Apparently, I'd also stopped paying attention to what I was doing, too, because I suddenly nicked my hand against the screen's titanium edge.

"SHIT! SHIT FIRE SON-OF-A-FRAKKING-BITCH!" I cursed loudly as blood surged from the large gash going across my left palm. "UNCLE GALEN! I COULD REALLY USE A BANDAGE!"

Both Uncle Galen and Lee whirled around at the sound of my cussing, and ran towards me. (I really didn't know what Lee was doing, but oh well.) Uncle Galen was the first to reach me.

"You okay, Sloane?"

I held my hand up in annoyance. "Does it honestly look like I'm okay? C'mon, Uncle Galen."

Uncle Galen whistled to Lee, and told him to look in his toolbox for a roll of bandages. Lee nodded his head, and rifled through the toolbox for a couple of seconds; when he found it, he tossed the roll to Uncle Galen, who immediately began to wrap them around my bloody hand.

"Gods Sloane, what the hell were you doing?"

I shrugged nonchalantly. "Fixing the DRADIS, that's all. What else?"

"Do me a favor, and try to be careful, please?"

I nodded once, then looked around the hangar bay. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Lee staring at me. I turned my head slightly so my eyes were level with his, and stared right at them, trying to distinguish the color of them. When I did, I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

They were blue...his eyes were blue. They were luminescent and brilliant; they were so beautiful that they made wanna cry all of a sudden. I realized that something weird was going on as Lee stared back at me curiously. His eye color exactly matched what mom had told me. There was a very small possibility that this hotshot, handsome pilot could've been my father.

_No way, _my mind contradicted. _Just because he has the blue eyes doesn't mean that he's the actual sperm donor that helped out mom in making you. There could be others like him out in the twelve colonies. _

Sadly, the little voice inside my brain had a point - there could be MILLIONS of others like Lee Adama out there. But still, it was interesting to think that this guy could probably be my dad.

"She gonna be okay?" Lee asked Uncle Galen.

"Yeah, she'll be fine."

I flashed Lee a thumbs-up. "This always happens...it's just that it usually isn't this bad. I should cut it out though, otherwise I'm gonna be dead by the time I turn fourteen."

Lee looked at me strangely the moment 'fourteen' slipped out of my mouth. "How old are you, exactly?"

"Just turned thirteen a week ago," I said proudly as I stood up and proceeded to climb back in the viper.

His jaw sagged a little, and he stuttered in disbelief. "T-thirteen? What the frak is a thirteen-year old girl doing here in a viper?!"

"She's my _niece_, Captain," Uncle Galen said harshly. "I don't have a problem with her being down here, and neither does the Commander."

"Besides," I added, "do you REALLY want to see your pilot buddies blow up because their bird's screwed up? No. THAT'S why I'm here."

Lee shook his head in exasperation. "Do your parents know that you're down here?"

"It's just my mom. And yeah, she does know. She really doesn't give a shit what I do, as long as it's not overly crazy." I fished out an unplugged wire from the mess inside the dashboard, and quickly plugged it back in it's port. The screen instantly lit up, and displayed the viper's radar. Seeing that my work on the DRADIS was done, I put the cover for the dashboard back on, then jumped out of the cockpit with a satisfied grin on my face. "Anything else you'd like to know, Captain Adama?"

By then, Lee had stopped listening to me, and was now stomping towards the entry hatch to complain to his father about letting me fix up vipers.

"NICE TALKING TO YOU, TOO!" I called out sarcastically as Lee slammed the hatch shut behind him.

Once he was gone, I looked at Uncle Galen, and burst out laughing. "What an ASS! What the hell's his problem?"

Uncle Galen snorted. "Heh, I was thinking the same thing, too." He strode over to the bird I'd just finished fixing, and climbed into the cockpit. "You fix the DRADIS in this bird, Sloane?"

"Yeah. A wire had come loose, so I plugged it back in. Should be good to go now."

He flicked the DRADIS on for a quick once-over, and nodded pleasantly. "Nicely done, Sloane. You sure as hell have a talent for technology."

"And who wants to bet that she'll be as talented as her mom when she sits down in a viper?" a deep, booming voice called out over the sound of the claxons.

I looked over my shoulder, and saw Uncle Helo standing on the wing of his raptor with a big smile cemented to his face. A huge grin spread across my face the moment I laid my eyes on him.

"UNCLE HELO!" I squeed as I rushed in his direction and tackle-hugged him.

Uncle Helo, being a big guy - he was tall enough to tower a foot over me - of course, easily stood his ground as he caught me with the arm that wasn't holding his helmet. He squeezed me, then lowered me down to stand on the raptor's wing. "There's my favorite niece," he said as he gave me a noogie. "How's it going, Jarhead?"

Okay, for all you clueless people, a jarhead is just another nickname for a marine. Uncle Helo came up with it when I was five years old. The long story made short: I trip on a stair, I bash up my knee, and I shout "FRAK!" at the top of my lungs in front of mom and Uncle Helo. Thus, I'm nicknamed Jarhead because my language is as colorful as a marine's. There you go, people - a short nicknaming history of Sloane Thrace.

I saw that Uncle Galen was now occupied with arguing with Sharon Valerii - Uncle Helo's co-pilot and Uncle Galen's long-time squeeze...I might be a kid, but I know an affair when I see one, and holy SHIT, did Uncle Galen and Sharon have an affair going on - and figured that my services were no longer needed, so I untied the knotted sleeves, and unzipped my knuckledragger suit.

"Well, I spent this lovely little morning heckling Lee Adama, fixing a gimpy DRADIS in a viper, and earning a battle scar while I was at it." I held up my bandaged left hand, and made a slashing motion across my palm. "That'll teach me to wear gloves next time."

"Crap Sloane, you hack your hand up with a machete or something? What the hell did you do?"

A hatch slammed shut, and Uncle Helo and I looked towards the source. Assuming that it was Uncle Galen and Sharon, I looked back at Uncle Helo, and asked, "What's Sharon crabbing about this time?"

Uncle Helo sighed. "Primary gimbal, what else?"

I stole a glance at his face, and saw that his eyes held a hint of longing and disappointment. Seemed to me that Uncle Helo always had that look in his eye whenever Sharon was hanging around Uncle Galen...almost like he wished that Sharon was his instead of Chief Tyrol's.

The look quickly disappeared from Uncle Helo's eyes though. He looked at me, gave me a smile, and said, "So, you were saying before?"

I smirked. "Well, I got careless fixing the DRADIS, and I nicked my hand on the edge of the screen."

Uncle Helo shook his head and chuckled. "Gods, that sounds like something your mom would do."

"Speaking of, did you see my mom before you went out in the raptor? She should be raggin' on me right now for not running two more miles than I can handle," I trailed off. "I haven't seen or heard her for almost half an hour."

A sort-of doubtful look appeared on Uncle Helo's face. "Yeah...Sharon and I were the ones trying to keep her from wailing on Tigh."

_Frak me, you've gotta be JOKING. _

"Did Tigh toss her in hack again?" I asked with an exasperated sigh.

"Sloane, it's not like the X.O.'s gonna give her a gold star and a promotion for using her right hook on him. Of course Tigh tossed her in hack." Uncle Helo unzipped his flight suit down to his waist. "It's Buck's fifth trip to the brig this month."

_Is mom trying to break a record for the biggest number of trips to the brig or some other bullshit? FIVE TRIPS! What the hell?!_

"Dammit all," I gowled irritably. "Why the hell does she always do this?"

"The colonies may never know, kiddo."

I shook my head, then looked at him. "Can you come and keep me company while I get my mom's sorry ass outta hack, please?"

Uncle Helo smiled. "Well, since you _did _say please, sure. I'll give you some company."

I grinned in thanks, then headed in the direction of the brig with Uncle Helo following close behind.

_Gods, I'm SO gonna smack her upside the head when I get her out._

-------

**SHA-WING!!!!! Third chappie is complete!!!!! R&R, and keep your eyes peeled for the fourth chapter!!!!!! :D**


	4. FRAK ME!

**Author's Note: **Ha, I've gotten to my favorite part of the story so far….this is gonna be good. xD

**Disclaimer: **I own…..A BATCH OF COOKIES!!!! Who wants one? :D

o-o-o-o-o-o

_Lee's P.O.V._

Lee had never recalled Galactica as being a large ship...or one that was built for battle, anyway. He remembered seeing pictures of the old girl in books and various newspapers, and not really considering the length of the halls or the size of the decks and all the other whatnot. Now, as he walked through the same halls he had seen countless times before, Lee wondered just how large and laden with rooms and metal this battlestar was.

He stopped in front of a hatch, and without bothering to knock, he opened it and stepped into the small room. Once Lee was inside, he quickly saluted to a marine on his right, and gave her a curt nod in thanks. Then, he refocused on what was before him. There, in front of Lee's piercing blue eyes, was the sole person he had been searching for from the moment his viper had touched down on the landing deck - Kara Thrace.

A smile grew on his face as he watched concentrate on the number of pushups she was doing. _Figures, _Lee thought. _What better way for Kara to spend her time in the brig than to do pushups?_

Lee rested his muscled, bare arms on the bars of Kara's cell, and smirked. He had the strangest feeling that he'd find Kara in here, and he'd been right. He stared curiously at her as she lowered her body to the floor, then pushed it back up with difficulty. "This seems familiar," he finally said.

Kara's arms immediately locked up at the sound of Lee's voice, and she twisted her head to the side slightly. When her eyes met his, she jumped up and stood in front of him with a thick-lipped smile on her face.

"Captain Adama, sir," Kara said with a faint hint of surprise in her tone. Then, a spark of mischief flared in her hazel-colored eyes. "Sorry I wasn't there to greet you with the rest of the squadron. Did they kiss your ass to your satisfaction?"

Lee was silent for a second. He was starting to feel a bit awkward talking to Starbuck, and there were many reasons for feeling this way that he could easily name off the top of his dark-brown hair-covered head. "So, what's the charge this time?"

Kara shook her head and sighed. "Striking a superior asshole," she grumbled. Tigh - said superior asshole - was the number one reason that she was in here right now. It had started at this morning's triad game - he made a comment about her charge for drunk and disorderly in flight school; she fired back with a question about the ex-wife; he threw a hissy fit in her direction and flipped the triad table at her; and she popped him in his saggy, boozy-scented face with a well-executed right hook. Now, she was here until further notice, thinking of a good way to get back at the frakking boozehound without risking another trip to hack, or worse, losing her pilot's license.

Lee chuckled at Kara's snarky response. "I'll bet you've been waiting all day to say that one."

Kara chewed on her bottom lip gently. "Most of the afternoon, yeah." A grin bloomed on Kara's face, and she laughed silently. Then, her attitude suddenly changed from lighthearted to serious as she asked, "So how long's it been?"

"Two years."

"Two years...wow, we must be getting old. Seems like the funeral was a couple months ago." A sad and far-off glint appeared in her eyes as the memory of Zak's funeral surfaced. "Your old man's doing fine...we don't talk about it much, maybe two-three times a year. He still struggles with it."

Lee suddenly had to look away from Kara. They were venturing into painful territory, and Lee really wasn't in the mood to go there at the moment. "I haven't seen him yet."

"Why not?"

Lee didn't answer.

Kara huffed in annoyance. Lee knew that she thought that he was being really immature with this right now.

"Kara, don't even start this-"

In a moment of anger, Kara cut Lee off, and gave him a harsh glare. "How long are you gonna do this, Lee?"

"I'm not doing anything."

"He lost his _son, _Lee."

"And who's responsible for that?" Lee snapped roughly.

The grittiness of Lee's voice seemed to go right over Kara's head like a bird in the sky. "Same old Lee. You haven't changed either."

Lee mentally cringed at her words. He'd pretty much forgotten how sharp-tongued and punctual she could be at certain times. Then again, it had been his goal to forget just about everything having to do with Kara Thrace. The situation Lee was now stuck in served as a reason why he'd wanted to forget.

"Zak was my brother."

"And what was he to me, nothing?"

Lee gave Kara a hard look. She knew damn well what he meant; she was just being outright difficult right now. "That's not what I meant, Kara," he said irritably. "And you know it-"

"You should go...I'm getting the urge to hit another superior asshole."

Stunned into silence and total obedience by her somewhat-masked threat, Lee nodded, and slowly made his way out of the brig. As he closed the hatch behind him, he sighed; he'd tried to make a simple conversation with Kara. But like it usually did nowadays, the conversation got off-topic, and within a few seconds the two of them would be arguing and trying to tear each other to pieces. Quite frankly, it pissed Lee off that this almost always happened; he just wanted to be friends with Kara, the kind that she could trust to listen to her when she had a problem or two that she needed some guidance for. He was that kind of person - and he wanted to be that type of friend to her, nothing more, nothing less.

Kara, on the other hand...eesh, the woman had a frakking NERVE. It seemed like she couldn't give damn about having a normal friendship with him; she seemed to always want a relationship that was either horrenderously dangerous or horrenderously stupid. Lee honestly didn't know why he went out of his way to be friends with Kara.

_Dammit, _Lee's mind cursed. _Why does she have to be so frakking difficult?_

Lee's thoughts drifted to the night he'd first met Kara, and he shuddered at the memory of it. That night had been the root of all his bad luck. In his drunken state that evening, Lee had figured that his actions wouldn't haunt him. Yet, the moment he started making love to Kara, his head temporarily cleared of alcohol, and he realized that he'd been wrong in his assumptions - this WOULD haunt him, and at some point it might very well come along and bite him in his arrogent ass.

All of a sudden, something crashed into Lee, and he nearly lost his balance. "Can you watch where you're-"

Lee was rendered speechless as he looked down. It was like a lightning bolt of shock had passed through his body as he zeroed in on the person in front of him.

It was the girl from the hangar deck - the thirteen-year old.

The sight of her scared Lee. There was something that was so frakking familiar about this girl, but Lee couldn't quite place a finger on it for a second. Then, he looked into her eyes, and he could've sworn that his blood had frozen and stopped circulating: they were hazel-colored, but that wasn't what was frightening him so badly; there was an equal amount of brown and green, and just the tiniest hint of amber flecked around the irises. It was the type of hazel that could lighten or darken based on a current emotion.

_Holy frak, it can't be._

If Lee wasn't mistaken - and he was painfully aware that he wasn't - this silver-tongued young girl had the exact same eye color as Kara.

_Oh my gods._

"Who the hell are you?" Lee hissed nervously.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_Sloane's P.O.V._

I honestly never saw him coming as I headed down towards hack with Uncle Helo. One minute, I'm running and focusing all my attention on the floor in front of me; then next thing I know, I'm practically headbutting Lee in the stomach and getting knocked backwards on my ass.

"Can you watch where you're-" he started in annoyance, but the second he looked at me, his face pretty much turned the color of paint primer.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked after about five minutes of gawking at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, NOW you wanna get to know me. Well, too bad, Apollo. You had your chance, and you were dumb enough to pass it up." It was hard for me not to laugh - I was on a frakking roll with this. Apparently, Uncle Helo was thinking the same thing, because I could hear him tittering like a little schoolgirl behind me. "Now if you'll excuse us, we've gotta bust my mom outta hack."

Lee's breathing kicked up a couple notches the second 'mom' slipped out of my mouth. His voice was barely above a whisper as he stammered, "Your m-mom? K-K-Kara?"

_Lords of Kobol on frakking popsicle sticks, what is this guy's problem?_

"Yes, Kara's my mother. What's it to you?"

Well, that turned out to be a bad mistake on my part.

"She did NOT do this! She did not FRAKKING DO THIS!" Lee muttered furiously as he grabbed me by the arm forcefully.

Uncle Helo began stalking towards Lee as he dug his fingers into my bicep roughly. "Let go of her, or I swear-"

"Shut your mouth. This has nothing to do with you, got it?" Lee then proceeded to drag me down to hack like a worn-out rag doll, while I clawed at his hand in a desperate attempt to get away from him. It was no use though - his fingers were pretty much locked around my bicep. I did give him credit; the man had his iron-grip hold nailed and thensome.

"Sloane, don't do anything, okay?" Uncle Helo instructed me from down the hall.

"No use! Just wait here! I'll be fine!"

_At least I hope I will be. _

Lee threw the hatch to the brig open with a loud _CLANK, _took his hand away from my now-bruised arm, and stormed towards mom.

"Why, Kara? Why?"

Even though she was staring directly at a dangerously-angry Lee, mom pulled her mouth to one side and simultaneously gave him a cow-eyed look. As far as I was concerned, that had to be the DUMBEST thing she could even think of doing in this little scenario. "Why _what,_ Lee? Care to be more specific?"

_Ooh, she's REALLY asking for trouble now. _

"DAMMIT ALL KARA, WHY THE FRAK DIDN'T YOU TELL ME WE HAD A THIRTEEN-YEAR OLD KID!" Lee shouted lividly as he jabbed his finger at me. "WHY IN THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT I'VE BEEN A FATHER FOR THIS LONG!"

_Holy shit, IT'S HIM! IT REALLY IS HIM!!_

"Hey, people! Can we stop the shouting now? Somebody needs to explain things to me!"

My voice was immediately drowned out by mom and Lee's verbal duke-out. Already tired of the shouting, - and really frakking annoyed that I wasn't having things explained to me - I gulped some air into my lungs, and screamed as loud as I could, "WILL YOU TWO SHUT YOUR FRAKKING MOUTHS FOR A SECOND?!"

Both mom and Lee stopped with their yelling, and turned to face me, surprise etched lightly in their faces.

_Floor's mine. Oh yeah._

"Look," I explained irritably like I was explaining basic rights and wrongs to a ten-year old, "I obviously have NO idea what this screamo-fest is all about. So, would somebody care to explain to me why you guys are bitching and crabbing at each other like a frakking married couple?"

"It's not gonna be me, that's for sure. If anybody's going to fill you in...." Lee paused for a moment, not really having a clue as to what my name was.

"Sloane. My name's Sloane, in case you're wondering."

"All right...like I was saying, if anybody's going to fill you in _Sloane, _it's going to be your mother." Lee then stepped to the side, so I could see mom without having to look over and around his broad shoulders.

Mom gave me a guilty half-smile. "I probably should've told you this a long time ago, but no use dwelling on what-if's." With a deep breath, she then gestured to Lee, and said in a soft voice, "Sloane...meet your father, Lee."

_Holy hell. I was right...Lee Adama is my own frakking FATHER. _

I could only gape at mom with my mouth open like a goldfish for a few moments. You'd figure that I'd have a _smarter _reaction to what she'd just told me, but nope - I was so frakking dumbfounded that it was like I was suddenly braindead. Luckily, my higher knowledge kicked back in, and I was able to croak out, "You aren't kidding about this, are you?"

Mom only shook her head. That little head movement pretty much did it.

"Well, FRAK ME!" I exclaimed.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

**Ah, this was a blast of a chappie to write. Anyway, stay posted for chapter five!!!! And remember, REVIEWS ARE POWER!!!! :D**


	5. Taking Blows, Dealing Blows

**Author's Note: **YEE-HAW!!!! Chapter number five is up and bein' broadcasted live to all you eager readers! ENJOY!!! :D

**Disclaimer: **I own…a guitar pick with a cylon eye doodled on it. It's gonna kill you! :P

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

There had to be close to a million thoughts and emotions zipping through my brain as I ran out of the brig and towards Uncle Helo like my ass was on fire.

"Dude, you are not gonna BELIEVE what just happened to me!" I gasped in an out-of-breath voice as I bent over to cut my lungs some slack in front of Uncle Helo.

"We'll get to that soon enough Jarhead. First though, are you okay? Did Lee do anything to hurt you?"

I shook my head. "Only the stuff you witnessed. I mean, excluding the bruise I got from him dragging me to mom, I'm fine." I straightened up, and looked Uncle Helo in the eye. "Now like I said before, you are not gonna believe what just happened to me. It's frakking CRAZY."

"Lee's your dad?" he said with an unsurprised shrug.

_Okay, DEFINITELY not the reaction I was expecting._

"Wait, how the frak did you know?" I asked in an incredulous voice. "You didn't even know the guy before he came here!"

"Your mom did." Uncle Helo grinned lazily, reminding me of an iguana sun-tanning on a rock. "C'mon Jarhead, your mom wasn't TOTALLY tight-lipped about your dad. I'm the only other person that knows about Lee."

I scowled. "Dammit, why does it seem like I'm the only person here that's just finding out about this?"

Uncle Helo chuckled and ruffled my hair. "You aren't alone, kiddo. Your dad's a member of the club too." His head jerked to the side just as Lee walked out of hack as quickly as his own two legs could carry him. "Ain't that right, Apollo?" he called out as Lee started to head in the opposite direction, and towards the pilots quarters.

Lee stopped at Uncle Helo's words, and glanced over his broad shoulder with a question mark look on his face.

"You had no idea that this was coming, huh?"

"Obviously."

Lee, in an obvious rush to get to where he needed to be before I showed up and practically frakked up his entire life, turned his head back to look at the long stretch of the hallway in front of him. Just as he was about to leave though, I stopped him with a curt "Hey Lee!"

Annoyed, he again looked over his shoulder, and stared at me unhappily. "What do you want, kid?"

_You're gonna have to do better than that, Lee._

"You heading off to get ready for the decommissioning right now?" I asked curiously.

He nodded.

"Well, you mind if I tag along?"

A shit-himself-scared look suddenly welled up on Lee's flawless face. His blue eyes darted from me to Uncle Helo, who shook his head and half-smiled at him. "Don't look at me, Apollo. You're the brand new daddy, so if I were you, I'd get really comfy with having your daughter trailing behind you 24/7."

_Thank you, Uncle Helo._

Lee shot Uncle Helo a death glare. Then, he huffed dramatically and waved my over with an irritated "Come on, kid."

My heart did a happy little victory flip as soon as Lee said I could go with him. As I skipped over to him with a huge grin and a perky spring in my step, I felt like the happiest frakking teenager that was walking through Galactica's hallways at the moment.

"Shall we?"

Lee honestly looked like he'd rather eat dirt than deal with me for an hour or two, but he nonetheless grumbled, "Let's go."

Then, we both set out to get set for the decommissioning ceremony.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_Lee's P.O.V._

Lee's head was buzzing as he headed to his quarters with his newly-introduced daughter following close behind him. The buzz was coming from the zillions of thoughts that passed through his mind; such thoughts included, _How the hell does my life get so screwed up so quickly? _and,_ What am I gonna do now? I've never taken care of kid - one that I've pitched in with making, anyway...oh GODS, what is wrong with my life?_

He felt her tap him on the shoulder. "You okay?" she asked innocently.

Lee sighed. "Not really." He slowly scratched the back of his neck. "Gods, I can't believe Kara had you...she doesn't seem like the motherly type at all."

"You would know, Lee."

"Yeah, I would know, _Sloane._"

It was silent for a few minutes as Lee and Sloane walked through the maze of halls to the pilots quarters. Then, Sloane broke the awkward quiet by asking him, "Sooo...anything interesting about you that you'd like me to know right now?"

_Hell, what was I thinking when I said she could come along?_

"I'm a viper pilot, I'm the commander's son, I'm originally from Tauron. What more do you need to know?"

She huffed in agitation. "Did you note the part where I said _interesting? _Come on, Lee. I'm just a kid getting to know her father that she never knew existed for the last _thirteen years. _There's BOUND to be some weird fact about you that most people don't know."

By now, Lee and Sloane were standing in front of the pilots quarters, and Lee was growing considerably aggravated by this thirteen-year old's badgering. Really, he just wanted to be left alone - he could get ready without any distractions, he could get this ceremony over with, then he could go back home to Caprica and forget that all of this happened. Sadly, his daughter was standing in the way of this, and it seemed like she wasn't getting out of it for a good long time.

With an exasperated groan, Lee turned to face Sloane. "Look kid-"

"Would it absolutely _kill _you to call me Sloane?"

"Whatever. Can you do me a favor, and just let me be for the moment? I really need to get ready for this ceremony, and you're being a major-league distraction. So, be a good girl, and run along now."

A flabbergasted look welled up on Sloane's pale face a second after Lee had practically told her off. Then, flabbergasted violently changed to frakking pissed as hell as she angrily smacked the palm of her small hand upside Lee's head. It took most of Lee's self-control not to smack her in retaliation.

"What the hell was that for?"

"You know DAMN WELL what that was for," Sloane hissed venomously. "You're acting like a bona fide JACKASS, Lee. What the hell was _that _for, huh? I'm being a major-league distraction to you? I should run along? While you do what, Lee? Try to get my existance out of your head and shove me to the side? NO! I'm not frakking leaving because you just don't want to deal with me! You're permanently stuck with me as your daughter, so I'd get friendly with the situation and start acting like a good father right frakking NOW."

_What is frakking going on? I DON'T NEED THIS! _

"Listen to me, young lady, I don't need you to be calling me a _bona fide jackass_. I'm your father, and I'm not going to listen to you talk and cuss like a damn marine!"

Sloane glared at Lee in pure disgust. "Get this through your head, Apollo. I don't give a rat's ass if you're my father - it's gonna be a _while _before I listen to you and your suggestions. Just because you're my parent doesn't mean that you can start preaching to me what I can and can't do...especially when I've just MET YOU. GOT IT?"

Lee noticed that his daughter's hands had balled up into fists - a clear indication that she did this when she got enormously angry. He realized that this was yet another thing that she and Kara shared; it wasn't necessarily a good thing to share with a child, but it was still there in her.

_She's got spunk and she's tough as frakking nails. Just like her mother, _Lee thought absent-mindedly.

"You know what, Lee? Forget it - forget that any of this happened, forget that I'm here, forget about my mom; FORGET EVERYTHING!" she shouted in frustration before she took off down the hall they'd just walked up, her long, dark-brown hair lashing out behind her like a fluid and whip-like wave. "You don't wanna deal with me or anything related to it, so I'll frakking leave you alone now! Are you happy now?!"

_She's as stubborn as her mother, too. _

"That's not what I meant, Sloane! Get back here!"

Lee realized that trying to get Sloane to come back was no use now - his stick-in-his-ass behavior had really frakked things up. At the moment, Lee was almost certain that she didn't want anything to do with him - not now, not for a while...hell, maybe not ever. All because things didn't go as planned for him.

Officially angry with himself, Lee decided that it was time for him to stop being an idiot. So, as he stripped his tanks and cargos off to change into his dress uniform for photos, he began to think of ways to set things straight with this lionhearted teenager that was his own daughter...and possibly Kara, whenever he'd get the chance to. He'd been absent from his kid's life for far too long; Lee Adama wasn't about to let it go on this way any longer.

Satisfied with his quickly-formed plan, Lee grabbed his flight suit and helmet out of his locker to change into after the photos were taken, and proceeded to go down to the meeting and conference room.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_Sloane's P.O.V._

I didn't want to believe that what Lee had said to me before I verbally degraded him was true. If I had my head on straight, maybe I'd believe myself; but that wasn't the current situation right now. The current situation was that my hormones had suddenly kicked in and spiked my emotions and irrational thinking through the frakking roof, and it was making me think stuff that wouldn't normally run through the crazy pink blob I call my brain. Normally, I would've figured that he didn't really mean what he'd said; with my mood swings on a spectrum that could be as colorful as a damn mood ring though, it sounded like he meant it all.

_How the hell could he do something like this? _

The 'whys' and the messed-up assumptions that ran through my head made me want to hit something, and HARD. It felt like the only way that I could let off steam and release all the pent-up anger I'd bottled up in the last few minutes.

So, I ran down to the one place where hitting things was never refused - the gym. There was always a free-standing punching bag in the gym - just resting in a corner, waiting for somebody to come along and beat the frakking stuffing right out of the seams. Just waiting for somebody like me to come along and absolutely pummel it.

I got to the gym, and slid through the hatch, growling when my eyes fell on the punching bag. I immediately grabbed a pair of kickboxing gloves from a nearby locker, wrapped them around my hands, then proceeded to jab, kick, roundhouse, and punch the damn thing into oblivion.

"Don't wanna deal with me, Lee? Don't wanna deal with a thirteen-year old?" I muttered through clenched teeth. "That's fine. 'Cause I DON'T-WANNA-DEAL-WITH-YOU-EITHER!" On those last few words, I smashed my fists and bare feet into the bag as hard as could between the pauses.

I kept this up for a few more minutes (hitting the bag as hard as possible), then stopped for a bit to catch my breath. Sweat trickled down my face, neck, and back as I sat down on a nearby bench, and my heart thudded against my ribcage loudly. It was the same feeling I had when I ran four miles with mom earlier this morning. This feeling though, was somewhat different; the sweat and the fatigue I had from kicking and hitting that bag felt good - it was a sign to me that my anger had been spent during that time. Unless somebody were to come along right at this moment and piss me off, I didn't have to worry about wanting to kick some random person's ass.

Suddenly, there was a rustle of fabric as somebody adjusted their position. My head jerked up, and I saw an older-looking woman with short brown hair staring at me. An amused look was playing across her slightly-aged face, and it seemed like she was interested in seeing me with my entire upper body drenched in sweat and strands of my hair practically glued to my temples.

"Those kickboxing moves you just pulled off were pretty impressive and powerful," the woman said in a surprisingly young voice. "Who taught you how to fight like that?"

_I find it a little creepy that this lady was watching me the entire time. And how the hell did she know that was kickboxing?_

"My Uncle Helo taught me. Well, he taught me most of the moves - my mom taught me the rest of my stuff with some kicks and jabs she knew." I wiped the sweat off my forehead, and sucked some air into my lungs. "I use it to help get my mind off of certain things."

The lady walked over to me, and sat down on the bench that was opposite from mine. "I could see that. You seemed like you were fueling some emotion into your hooks and jabs and other whatnot. What's got a teenager like yourself whalloping that bag like there's no tomorrow?"

_Is this woman a kickboxing expert or what? _

I was also wondering if she was a psychic, too - she knew right away that I was a teenager. I usually have to tell people that I'm an emotional middie on the age scale; so it surprised me that she could tell what age group I was stuck in.

"It's a long story..."

"I understand if it's something that you'd rather keep private, honey. I'm just a curious old woman, that's all."

I smiled. "And an apparent kickboxing expert. How do you know all the moves?"

"My father was a hand-to-hand fighting fan. He loved it all - boxing, kickboxing, martial arts, you name it. He'd take me to a couple matches as a kid...at one point, I guess I developed a thing for the sports."

_Gods, I don't even know who this lady is, and I already like her._

"Righteous," I said with a chuckle. "What's your name?"

"My name's Laura Roslin," she replied with warmth in her voice.

I was wowed now. _I've been talking with Laura Roslin? HOLY FRAK!_

"You're the..."

"Secretary of Education, yes," she finished for me. "Normally, most people wouldn't know me unless I told them. You're actually the first person that knows who I am." She laughed at this realization, then looked at me with a smile on her face. "So, what's your name?"

"Name's Sloane Thrace." I stuck my hand out for Laura to shake it. "Nice to meet you."

She gladly took my hand, and shook it. "Nice to meet you too, Sloane."

I quickly glanced at the clock tacked on the far wall to check the time, and gasped. It was 10:10 - that meant that I had five minutes to take a quick shower and get in my dress blues before the decommissioning ceremony started. With an air of urgency, I excused myself from the bench, and unwrapped the gloves from my warm and sweaty hands.

"What's the rush, Sloane?" Laura asked me, totally unaware that I had a short amount of time to make myself look decent before going to this ceremony.

I pointed to the clock as I tossed the gloves back into the locker. "Decommissioning starts in five minutes. I really hate to be rude at the moment, but I've gotta jump in a shower and get set for this ceremony."

"Oh no, I'm not offended! I should actually be getting ready too - I've gotta read a speech during the ceremony." She gave me a quick smile, and started to walk towards the hatch. "It was nice meeting you, Sloane. I hope to see you around."

Then, we both went our separate ways, and got ready to do what we were gonna do for the ceremony.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

**Well, this has officially become the longest chapter I've written thus far for this story. IT WAS FUN TO WRITE IT, THOUGH! :) R&R, PEOPLE!!!! And stay tuned for chapter six!!! :D**


	6. Conversations with the Old Man

**Author's Note: **Last chapter was a blast…now, CHAPTER SIX IS GONNA BE EVEN MORE OF A BLAST!!! WOO-HOO!!!! :D

**Disclaimer: **I own…my brain. It's my source of creativity. But I'm pretty sure you guys already knew that. Whatever. :P

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_Lee's P.O.V._

Lee's heart was pounding against his ribcage, and he was positive that he was experiencing every emotion that there was - if that was even possible. He stood on the other side of the Galactica's meeting and conference room, trying to decide if it was worth it to go inside and take a few publicity pictures with his father, and risk reliving the aftermath of his baby brother's death and the memory of his funeral. On one side, Lee felt deep, painful sorrow - he knew those emotions were exactly the same way inside his heartbroken father - over the loss of Zak in a viper accident; but on the other side, Lee felt wild anger and hatred towards his old man. He may as well have caused Zak to die - he pulled the strings, gave him the b.s. about men becoming men when they became viper pilots, and pressured him to become a pilot to make the family proud. It filled Lee with hazy rage just thinking about it - as far as he was concerned, his own father, the great Bill Adama, had killed his own son.

Oddly enough though, Lee found himself taking a deep breath, and opening the hatch to a bunch of press and publicity people - and his seemingly-innocent father. He nodded once to Lee, which easily translated into a very curt _Hello, son. _

Reminiscent of a sea parting, the press group split in half as Lee walked down the middle with a sense of pride.

"Captain, thank you for joining us," a man in a cheap-looking teal suit said with a nod and a smile. Lee didn't say anything in reply - he just simply wanted to get these photos taken care of, do the ceremonial fly-by, then go and be with his daughter.

The man in the teal suit stuck his hand out, which Lee shook somewhat-boredly. "Hi, Aaron Doral," he said. "If you'd just step over there, we'll get a few shots of you and the commander. Thanks."

Obediently, Lee jumped onto the slightly raised platform, and stood beside his father.

"'Kay gentlemen, could you maybe stand a bit closer?"

Lee glanced to his left, and noticed that there was a five-inch space of emptiness that was separating him from the old man; he'd hoped that Doral would see this, ignore it, and take the pictures. That wasn't the case though. With a barely audible sigh, Lee shuffled over a bit closer to his father, until the space between them had narrowed down to a mere inch.

"That's fantastic." One of Doral's thin brown eyebrows shot up, which Lee took as a sign that he was contemplating how the pose both he and the old man were in could be better. He nodded curtly, and said to his father, "Commander, could you put your arm around your son?"

_Ugh. Damn you, Aaron Doral. _

Lee gave Doral a dirty look; if it weren't for the prescence of his father and every single press photographer known to man, he would've pigeon-necked the sleazy-looking schmuck in that instant. But since there were important people watching his every move at the moment, all Lee could do was give the ghost of a wince as his father awkwardly wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

"Okay, great." Flashbulbs suddenly began to pop as photos were taken. When two sets of photos had been shot, Doral stuck his arms out to stop the press from taking more, and commanded, "Okay, and stop! Thank you very much, and see you at the ceremony!"

Once Doral and the others had left the room, Lee let out a thankful sigh, glad that the whole photo ordeal was over with. Now figuring that he was free to go and do what he wanted until it was time for the ceremony, Lee was about to leave, when the old man stopped him.

"You want some, er, coffee?" he offered.

"No sir, thank you, sir."

The room was quiet as Lee's father poured himself a small cup of straight black coffee. "Why don't you sit down?" he suggested after he'd finished pouring a bit of the steamy, dark-brown liquid.

For a very brief second, Lee was tempted to obey his father, and put aside all feelings that he felt around him. The temptation lasted for a moment, and then it evaporated when Lee remembered that he harbored anger and deep, hateful grudges towards his old man for putting Zak through flight school.

When Lee didn't answer, the old man switched to another conversation tactic. "Congratulations on making Captain. Sorry I wasn't there."

"Thank you, sir," Lee said stiffly. He was beginning to grow aggravated with his father's never-ending bombardment of questions, and the fact that he wasn't reading his subtle hints and noticing that he wasn't in the mood to talk. _Why can't he understand that I don't want to talk to him? Why can't he take a damn hint and leave me the hell alone?_

Adama was totally unaware of Lee's masked rudeness. "How's your mother?"

"Getting married."

Lee's father chuckled at the news. "Good for her. We spoke about a year ago, had a real heart-to-heart with her. It was good-"

_All right, he REALLY needs to cut the nostalgic crap and let me go!_

"I'm glad to hear that, sir. Will that be all?"

"Why don't you to me, Lee?" the old man said in a low growl.

It took all of Lee's self-control not to release the bout of sarcastic laughter that had bubbled up inside him in the past few minutes. "W-w-what do you want to talk about?"

"About anything. You've been here for an hour now."

"Well, I don't have anything to say," Lee shot back in a sharp voice. "My orders said report here and participate in the ceremony. So, I'm here, and I'm gonna participate. There wasn't anything in my orders about having a heart-to-heart chat with the old man."

The room was silent again before the old man spoke. "Accidents happen in the service."

_No, he is NOT doing this!_

"Dad, I don't want to do this-"

"You know all the things you talked about the last time I saw you at the funeral..."

"Dad, I REALLY don't want to do this!"

"They still ring in my ears after two years."

It was then that Lee lost all control of his temper, and it suddenly flared up in anger. "GOOD!" he snapped before his voice dumbed back down to regular speaking volume. "Good, 'cause, 'casue you know what? They were _meant to._"

"Zak had a choice. You both did," his father said solemnly.

_You've gotta be frakking kidding me._

"A man isn't a man until he wears the wings of a viper pilot. Doesn't that sound _at all _familiar to you?"

Adama took a sip of his coffee. "That's not fair son."

Lee looked away, and tried desperately to blink back the tears were threatening to spill down his cheeks. "No, it's not fair...because one of us wasn't cut out to wear the uniform."

"He earned his wings, just like we all did-"

"One of us wasn't fit to be a pilot." Lee's voice quickly took on an extremely harsh edge as his voice rose. "One of us wouldn't have even made it into _FLIGHT SCHOOL _if his old man, his _daddy, _hadn't pulled the strings!" he shouted.

"That's an exaggeration. I did nothing for him that I wouldn't have done for anyone else."

_Dammit all, he's missing my point!_

"You're not even listening to me. W-w-why can't you get this through you head? Zak, DID NOT, belong in _that plane!_"

Lee now noticed that his father had an iron grip on his tin coffee cup, and he was holding it hard enough to make dents in the sides with his beefy fingers. He also noticed that his bulldog-like jaw had set, his eyes had become dangerously steely, and his posture had become tense and rigid. Lee should've recognized that he was pushing his father too far and was venturing into bad territory, but he decided to see how far he could push him before he flat-out throttled him.

"He shouldn't have been in there. He-he was only doing it for you." Lee's words took on an ashamed and devastated tone as he bluntly said, "Face it - you killed him."

Lee could now see, as he stared at his father's angry stance, that he'd officially gone too far with the subject of Zak's death. It looked like the old man was doing anything - and everything - possible not to slug him. "That'll be all, Captain," he dismissed Lee haltingly.

At last, Lee shook his head in exasperation. "'Bout damn time. I've got a frakking kid to tend to."

Adama's head whipped around and practically did a 180 the moment Lee uttered 'kid'. "Excuse me?" he said while trying not to choke on the large sip of coffee he'd just taken.

_Shit, probably wasn't the smartest idea to let out that dirty little secret._

Trying to act like it was no big deal, Lee straightened up, and gave his old man a nonchalant shrug. "You heard me - I've got a kid to take care of."

All of a sudden, the old man was in Lee's face, and there was a deep, angry frown on his aged face. "Is this a joke? What the frak are you doing, Lee?" He grabbed his son's arms, and squeezed them in a vice-like hold. "Tell me the truth, NOW."

Lee gulped nervously - he should've known better than to bring this up. There was no escaping this now. "You see her almost everyday - in fact, you've seen her everyday for the past thirteen years, dad."

Adama's face immediately blanched. "You're not saying-"

"Yes, dad. Sloane's my daughter," Lee stated in an almost-monotone voice.

He let go of Lee's arms, and stepped back. "Get out," he whispered.

"What?"

The old man turned to Lee with an infuriated look on his face. "Get out of my sight, before I'm tempted to throw something at you!" he barked, his voice filled to the brim with rage.

Now more than happy to leave, Lee began to jog towards the entrance to the meeting room. Just before he left though, he turned to look at his father, and said, "You know, I did the same thing when Kara told me - it really pissed me off that she'd kept my daughter, _our _daughter a secret from me for all those years. But, you know what? I had to get over it. I decided that I wasn't gonna miss out on being her dad for the rest of her life - and neither should you. You're an official grandfather now, and I'd get used to it. Sloane's gonna need somebody she loves to go to when both of her parents aren't around for her."

Then, Lee left his silent father behind in the room to meditate on his words, and went off to change into his flight suit for the ceremony.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

**Whoa, man...frakking INTENSE chappie that was. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy it! AND REMEMBER, REVIEWS ARE POWER!! :D :D :D**


	7. Respect

**Author's Note: **Wow, I'm having so much fun with this! Anyways…ENJOY! :)

**Disclaimer: **I own…a butterfly ring. It's green, black, and blue – AND MAKING COLORS IN THE SKY! :D

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_Sloane's P.O.V._

By the time I'd finished jumping in and out of the shower, running a brush through my hair, and yanking on my dress blues with almost no respect for the seams that held the damn thing together, I'd already missed the first few minutes of the decommissioning ceremony. It pissed me off to know that I'd been too busy in levelling a punching bag instead of being smart and getting ready for this, but I'd learned my lesson - prepare ahead of time, instead of waiting around until the last second.

Tired and completely out-of-breath (yes, I'm quite the fatass, aren't I?), I collapsed in a folding chair in the last row just as one Laura Roslin stepped up to the podium. Around this time, people were going abso-frakking-lutely BERSERK over her. It was pretty impressive, if you ask me.

Anyway, she stood in front of her fairly large audience, and quickly cleared her throat. She then took a deep breath, and dove into the speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, ensigns and officers alike; on behalf of the senior political cabinet of the twelve colonies, welcome, and thank you for joining us today," she began slowly. "It truly is an honor to have you here for this decommissioning ceremony."

_Well, she's hooked me - the lady hasn't even started and I'm already interested in what she has to say._

Roslin pressed on with her speech. "Most of you at the moment are thinking, 'What is the Secretary of Education doing here?' Well, I'm here to give all of you a history lesson, and to make you honor the Galactica as one of the greatest war relics of her time." She readjusted the thin-framed glasses she was wearing before speaking again. "Years ago, during the first cylon war, I was wondering how humanity had managed to avoid being annihilated by the cylons in the first few moments of the war. My answer came to me in the form of newspaper headlines I saw in the morning paper a day after I had this thought - humanity had held it's own in the first wave of attacks because of ships like the Galactica. She, and many others like her, bravely charged into the fight to answer the call of duty, and to protect the millions of men, women, and children down on the planets."

Roslin paused for a brief second, and looked at the audience to see if she'd captured it's attention. Believe me when I say this, she _DEFINITELY _had everyone's attention, because there were people with an almost-spellbound gleam in their eyes. Yeah, good talking skills will do that to a person.

Satisfied, Roslin returned to the speech. "This ship, and all the men and women that served on it, have been through a lot of trying times. Officers that were a part of the first cylon war often wondered if they would live to see the next day, or if they alone were capable of fighting against a seemingly-invincible enemy. They did live, and discovered that they were capable of fighting the cylons; these officers stuck to their duties and tirelessly fought for humanity's survival." She spread her arms out wide, gesturing to the entire starboard flight pod proudly. "People wondered the same thing about Galactica; could a battlestar like this stand a chance against the enemy? Well, her sturdy build and amazing strength proved this right. The Galactica took hit upon hit from the cylons, but it never once backed away from the fight; like her officers, she remained strong, and constantly showcased her fighting capabilities. Back then, and to this very day, Galactica has been seen as a source of courage, power, and motivation - not just for her crew, but for the rest of humanity." Roslin smiled gently as applause began to fill the flight pod. "Now, as she's decommissioned, honor her as a monument, and treat her with the utmost respect, because the Battlestar Galactica deserves to be seen as a source of courage, power, and motivation. Thank you."

It was deafening as Roslin stepped off the podium, and sat beside a tall guy with curly brown hair. As soon as she sat down, the applauding ceased, and a guy with a weird combover and a gay teal suit stepped up to address the audience.

"I'd like to thank you all again for being here, and Secretary Roslin, thank you very much for those words. Next is a ceremonial fly-by by the last Galactica squadron, led by Captain Lee Adama."

_So that's why Lee's here. Of course. _

I looked up at the window just as brassy, military-style music flowed from the speakers hidden in the walls. On the cue of french horns and trumpets, an entire squadron of vipers appeared before my eyes.

They hovered in the air for a brief second, then charged forward like a bunch of tigers going in for a kill. The vipers then quickly pulled up and flew over the flight pod. Well, all except for one - the mark II that Lee was piloting. His viper hung behind the rest of the squadron, and from inside the cockpit, Lee seemed to be assessing and calculating what his next move was going to be.

All of a sudden, the mark II launched forward like a ballistic missile, and it looked like Lee had no intention of stopping or slowing down the bird anytime soon.

_Holy hell, he's gonna crash._

For a second, I watched wide-eyed as Lee's viper divebombed towards the large museum window. My heart immediately swelled with fear; I was scared for Lee. Yeah, I didn't want anything to do with his stick-in-his-ass behavior and personality, but I sure as hell didn't want to _lose _the guy, either.

In one moment, Lee had shrank the space between his viper and the museum window to a couple of yards. But in the next, the viper yanked itself up, and flew away to join the rest of the squadron.

Angry, but relieved that the little moment of terror was over and done with, I exhaled a thankful sigh, and applauded with the rest of the audience. I'll tell you what, Lee definitely had no bones about scaring the living shit out of people and giving them a heart attack. _Cocky dumbass, _I mentally grumbled.

Gay suit man reappeared behind the podium, his forehead covered with a light sweat and a freaked-out glint in his eyes. Well, at least he had some company.

"And now, it is my great pleasure to introduce the last commander of the Battlestar Galactica - Commander Adama," the guy said in a low voice before returning to his seat.

More applause sounded as Adama took to the podium. "Thank you very much." He pulled his reading glasses out of his pocket, and slipped them on the bridge of his nose, which looked like it had taken it's fair share of breaks back in the old days. He then gave everyone in the audience a deadpan stare, and began to talk.

"The cylon war is long over, yet we must not forget the many reasons why we sacrificed so much. The cost of freedom...the cost of wearing the uniform...can be high. But..." Adama hesitated, making it look like he wasn't sure whether to go on with the speech or just stop in the middle of it. He made up his mind, then took off his glasses. "Sometimes it's too high," he finished in a throaty whisper.

That last part kinda' shocked everyone, me included. We didn't know if this was part of the plan, or if the old man was winging it this time and trusting his improv skills. From the flabbergasted gawk that gay suit man was giving him, I'd have to say it was the second one.

"You know, when we fought the cylons," Adama began, "we did it to save ourselves from extinction. But we never answered the question _why. _Why are we, as a people, worth saving? We still commit murder, because of greed, and spite, and jealousy. And we still visit all of our sins upon our children. We refuse to accept responsibility for anything that we've done, like we did with the cylons. We decided to play God, create life - and that life turned against us. We comforted ourselves in the knowledge that it really wasn't our fault. Yet, you can't play God, and wash your hands of the things you've done, that you've created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can't hide from the things that you've done anymore."

It was quiet in the museum as Adama got off the podium, and took his seat beside his X.O. For a moment, it seemed like nobody knew what to do, now that the old man had surprised everyone with a different speech. At some point though, Roslin gathered up the stones to give the guy some kudos, and got the rest of the audience to applaud along with her. I gladly joined in; the old man deserved the ovation.

_Way to go, gramps, _I thought, the idea of calling the old man 'gramps' giving off a mentally weird taste. It was odd, me being the daughter of a damn-good viper pilot and the granddaughter of a battlestar commander.

Speaking of my dad, I couldn't get my mind off of the little 'incident' me and Lee had. I'd started to wonder if I'd been a little too harsh with what I'd said to him.

_He was acting like an ass to me. Why should I be feeling all 'remorseful'? _

To be honest, I didn't really know why. I mean, Lee had no right to treat me like garbage; but then again, the poor guy had just found out I was his daughter...and Starbuck was my mother. As far as the stress of dealing with a woman like my mom went, I could sympathize with him for being all "WTF!" Hell, I would've done the same thing, if I were Lee.

"Well, I knew I would see you soon!" somebody behind me chirped.

I glanced over my shoulder, and was happy to see Roslin standing behind me with an easygoing smile on her face. She stuck her hand out, and I shook it happily. "Hi Laura. That was an amazing speech...I mean, wow! That was just insane!"

"Thank you," she smiled. "I thought it was rather nice, too. Usually my speeches turn out to be rather boring."

_Boring? Gods, who wants to bet they're anything BUT boring? _

"Nah, far from it. And actually, it was inspirational."

Roslin nodded her head. "Glad to hear that. It's always a good thing when someone finds a speech inspirational. Just a question though - why did you find it 'inspirational'?"

"You remember earlier in the gym? When you asked me why I was hitting the bag so hard?" I said quietly.

"Yes, I do."

I sucked in a nervous breath of air. "I'd just met my dad for the first time a few minutes before you showed up, and...well, I guess he was in trauma mode. He told me he didn't want to deal with me for a while, and he told me to 'run along' and to leave him alone. And it really upset me, so I hit him and shouted names at him. That's why you saw me pummeling the bag so damn hard."

A zen look bloomed on Roslin's face. "I see why." She clasped her thin hands together. "You two still need a bit of time to establish a level of respect between each other. It's the only way that you can have a solid relationship with him, and him with you. Understand?"

_Wow, I really need a do-over with Lee. _

"Yeah, I do." I got out of my seat, and proceeded to hunt down Lee in the other hangar deck. "Thanks a lot, Laura!"

She waved to me before I disappeared around a corner. "Anytime!" she called out.

I smiled to myself, then started to jog through the halls to the deck. I was gonna fix things with Lee, and hopefully get off on the right foot with him this time.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

**AT LAST, THIS CHAPPIE IS FINISHED! HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOY THIS ONE! REMEMBER, R&R, AND STAY TUNED FOR CHAPTER 8! :D :D :D**


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